Report on year two of the Shared Action Plan

February 28, 2022

The Shared Action Plan (SAP) is the unique collaboration between gas utilities, HEET, and our allies to prioritize finding and repairing distribution system gas leaks with the highest environmental impact. The SAP goal? Cut distribution pipe leaks in half fast. The good news–it’s working! Read the full report on year two here.

Gas utilities are successfully finding the largest volume leaks and have begun fixing them (repairs occur within one-three years of identification). HEET continues to verify both the measurement and identification of leaks and their successful repair. We transparently share this data with the gas utilities in great detail, with the intent of facilitating rapid learning and improvement. 

HEET continues to find some variation between our own verification measurements of large volume leaks and those conducted by gas workers. While the physics of gas leaks means some variation is expected, we continue to strive for improvement in accuracy. Most importantly, despite variations, leak identification has remained accurate–the largest volume leaks are being identified and slated for repair. 

HEET is greatly looking forward to the day in the next couple of years when we can announce that enough large leaks have been repaired, indicating that we have cut emissions from grade 3 distribution pipe leaks in half. Stay tuned. 

Read the full report and learn more about the Shared Action Plan.